philip_k_dick_-_the_man_in_the_high_castle

'They would have taken them anyhow; their fleet was superior. I know the Japanese fairly well,
and it was their destiny to assume dominance in the Pacific. The U.S. was on the decline ever since
World War One. Every country on the Allied side was ruined in that war, morally and spiritually.'
With stubbornness, the girl said, 'And if the Germans hadn't taken Malta, Churchill would have
stayed in power and guided England to victory.'
'How? Where?'
'In North Africa — Churchill would have defeated Rommel finally.'
Wyndam-Matson guffawed.
'And once the British had defeated Rommel, they could move their whole army back and up
through Turkey to join remnants of Russian armies and make a stand-in the book, they halt the
Germans' eastward advance into Russia at some town on the Volga. We never heard of this town,
but it really exists because I looked it up in the atlas.'
'What's it called?'
'Stalingrad. And the British turn the tide of the war, there. So, in the book, Rommel never would
have linked up with those German armies that came down from Russia, von Paulus' armies;
remember? And the Germans never would have been able to go on into the Middle East and get the
needed oil, or on into India like they did and link up with the Japanese. And — '
'No strategy on earth could have defeated Erwin Rommel,' Wyndam-Matson said. 'And no events
like this guy dreamed up, this town in Russia very heroically called 'Stalingrad,' no holding action
could have done any more than delay the outcome; it couldn't have changed it. Listen. I met
Rommel. In New York, when I was there on business, in 1948.' Actually, he had only seen the
Military Governor of the U.S.A. At a reception in the White House, and at a distance. 'What a man.
What dignity and bearing. So I know what I'm talking about,' he wound up.
'It was a dreadful thing,' Rita said, 'when General Rommel was relieved of his post and that
awful Lammers was appointed in his place. That's when that murdering and those concentration
camps really began.'
'They existed when Rommel was Military Governor.'
'But — ' She gestured. 'It wasn't official. Maybe those SS hoodlums did those acts then . . . but he
wasn't like the rest of them; he was more like those old Prussians. He was harsh — '
'I'll tell you who really did a good job in the U.S.A.,' Wyndam-Matson said, 'who you can look to
for the economic revival. Albert Speer. Not Rommel and not the Organization Todt. Speer was the
best appointment the Partei made in North America; he got all those businesses and corporations
and factories — everything ! — going again, and on an efficient basis. I wish we had that out here
— as it is, we've got five outfits competing in each field, and at terrific waste. There's nothing more
foolish than economic competition.'
Rita said, 'I couldn't live in those work camps, those dorms they have back East. A girl friend of
mine; she lived there. They censored her mail — she couldn't tell me about it until she moved back
out here again. They had to get up at six-thirty in the morning to band music.'
'You'd get used to it. You'd have clean quarters, adequate food, recreation, medical care
provided. What do you want? Egg in your beer?'
Through the cool night fog of San Francisco, his big German-made car moved quietly.
On the floor Mr. Tagomi sat, his legs folded beneath him. He held a handleless cup of oolong
tea, into which he blew now and then as he smiled up at Mr. Baynes.
'You have a lovely place here,' Baynes said presently. 'There is a peacefulness here on the Pacific
Coast. It is completely different from — back there.' He did not specify.